Traditional Internet Protocol (IP) communication allows a host to send packets to a single host (unicast transmission) or to all hosts (broadcast transmission). To support a demand to provide applications such as audio and video conference calls, audio broadcasting, and video broadcasting that involve high data rate transmission to multiple hosts, a third routing technique has evolved, multicast routing. In multicast routing, a host sends packets to a subset of all hosts as a group transmission. Multicast routing protocols have been developed to conserve bandwidth by minimizing duplication of packets.
Internet Protocol (IP) communications generally provide different types of communication methods across a network (e.g., unicast and multicast). Unicast is a method of point-to-point communication, and it is typically used when two nodes need to exchange data, where neither node is concerned with sharing the data with multiple hosts. Multicast communications can allow a group of hosts to receive messages without broadcasting those messages to all of the hosts in the broadcast domain. The ability to minimize packet loss or disruptions in the network presents a significant challenge to component manufacturers, network operators, and service providers alike.